The Masks We Wear
by Hyperactive Lioness
Summary: Welcome to the world of the embodied," he said, a slight sneer playing around his lips. For Caris L. Clearwater! WARNING: Character death.
1. The World Of The Embodied

**Explanation time! And before you ask...**

**THIS IS NOT A DRAKE\OC FANFICTION. THIS WILL EVENTUALLY BE... Well, only me and Caris L. Clearwater truly know... Because she dared me to do a certain Drake\? pairing, and this is my interpretation of it. It's after HUNGER, and will be a multi-chap, although I might be slow updating. Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own GONE!**

**DEDICATION: To the amazing, crazy, all-around-awesome Caris L. Clearwater! :)**

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**Chapter One: The World Of The Embodied**

The first thing he noticed was the light. Strange, that's what it was. He was at least two hundred feet underground, there shouldn't be any light.

_Am I dead? _was his first coherent thought. But no, then came the second thing he noticed; the pain. It wasn't overwhelming, he had definitely felt worse, and it was mostly centered around his lower back. And then there was the humming. A weird, vibrating, almost _calming _sound. And it came from the source of the light.

Drake Merwin had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what that light was. Because when Caine Soren-- a barrage of thoughts and emotions hit him as he remembered that name, _suspicion, lies, power, betrayal_-- had thrown him down into this pit after he had wounded Diana Ladris-- _burning desire, anger, spite, inconceivable hatred_-- presumably to his death, he had also thrown in something else. A stick of glowing matter.

The uranium.

The gaiaphage's food source.

**_No longer hungry in the dark. Powerful in the light._**

The cavern Drake was in seemed to thrum with energy. The pain in his back simply faded away as he stood upright once again, feeling more alive then he had ever remembered.

**_Drake Merwin_.** The voice in his head drove him down once again, drove him to his knees with its intensity, but he managed to keep his head up, gazing with what seemed like confidence into the glowing, growing mass of green crystals. **_You have been faithful. The gaiaphage rewards those who are faithfulm and you are very worthy, unlike the other... _**A distorted image of Caine's smug face darted into Drake's vision, but then it was dispelled by swirling green fibers.

_**You have helped me create a body of my own. A body in which my enormous power can be focused through. And now, I will reward the faithful and raze the unfaithful into dust. **_

_**You will be rewarded, Drake Merwin, after you prove yourself to be beyond faithful, and that you are worthy enough to live in a world of my creating. After you assist me in destroying both Perdido Beach and Coates Academy from the inside out.**_

Drake's shark grin split his face.

"It would be my pleasure."

The green light began to recede, until there was only a faint glow surrounding a slight figure, the Darkness' new body. It flexed its fingers, and a ball of light flew to hover at the cieling of the cavern, bathing everything in a soft glow. Including its face.

Hard blue eyes stared out from under knitted eyebrows, and the short girl who encompassed the gaiaphage reached one thin hand to brush away her pale blond hair as she thrust out her other hand for Drake. He shook it, not hesitating once.

"Welcome to the world of the embodied," he said, a small sneer playing around his lips. Her eyes hardened even more until they were like chips of ice. He didn't shrink back in the slightest, but she still smirked. "What am I supposed to call you, the Darkness or gaiaphage?"

"How about Master?" she said over her shoulder as they began to climb out of the cave. She noticed his shoulders tense, and her smirk widened. "How about... Nala. You can call me Nala."

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**Okay, I realize this is going to be slightly odd. But don't worry, I've pretty much planned everything out, and Nala's not a Mary Sue. At least I don't think so... And this ISN'T a Drake\OC story, once again. I hope you like it so far, and if you have any questions, suggestions or things that I missed, don't hesitate to PM me!**

**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	2. Aliens Invading

**This story is getting stranger and stranger... And I kind of like it :)**

**That's all, enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own GONE, that's Michael Grant.**

**DEDICATION: As always, to the amazing Caris! This story wouldn't have come to be without her, and her random pairing ideas!**

**NOTE: Armygirl, hi! And you were right, "NALA" is just "LANA" mixed around... I didn't notice that when I was writing this, I swear! And no, Drake\Lana is not the pairing. But nice try, though! :P**

**OTHER NOTE: I don't know if I made this clear in the other chapter, but this is not a Mary Sue. Or a Drake\OC fic. Nala's like ten years old, and she's the Darkness. So... yeah. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter Two: Aliens Invading**

_"Aliens invading, run for your life_

_Grab your wife and babies_

_It's going down tonight..."_

_-Ke$ha, "Aliens Invading"_

Drake led the way out of the collapsed cave, pausing every so often to allow Nala to jump ahead and use telekinesis to move a rock or some other obstruction out of the way. He eyed the young girl ever so often, wariness sparking in his gaze. She had a smirk seemingly permanently etched in place of a smile, a smirk that looked ageless, looked extremely out of place on a ten-year-old's face.

"So, you can use telekinesis?" he asked, trying to keep his tone neutral, which was hard for Drake, especially when he thought of Caine. The girl snorted behind him.

"I'm the Darkness, if you hadn't noticed. I'm the one who _distributed _all of the powers, so naturally I have to have all of them within me. I just needed the radiation to form myself a body to regain power..." If Drake had looked behind him then, he would have seen an evil smile spread slowly over the blond girl's face, green molecules swirling in her dark eyes.

**Nala's POV:**

It felt so good to be back in a body again. I don't know or care to remember when I last inhabited a body...

Power courses through my veins now, not blood like normal humans have within them, radiation. The kind of radiation that kills humans; how fitting. I like it. The boy beside me is close to death, I can tell, although he can't feel it yet. The radiation that makes me stronger is slowly killing him, and he was one of my loyal servants back when I was just a mass of green, so I do him a favor and place my hand on his arm. He flinches, so I explain myself, and in a few minutes he is fully healed. Drake, I think he said his name was.

Drake, meaning dragon, the great killers and destroyers in mythology. I like that; I think I'll keep him around, for a little bit at least.

And after all, I'm a ten-year-old girl now. I need someone around to make sure I don't get myself in trouble.

Drake glances at me. He has so many questions that he's too nervous to ask, I can tell. He was one of my followers; his mind is easily opened for my perusal. He opens his mouth and then closes it again; the wimp.

For a few seconds I wiggle my fingers and the landscape shimmers before my eyes, and mine alone. The highway beside us is suddenly full of rushing cars holding adult humans who are yapping away on cell phones. Drake is still beside me, directing us to Perdido Beach, unaware of the now-bustling highway full of grownups, who, in turn, are unaware of us.

I smirk and wiggle my fingers again, watching as the cars dissolved and Drake and I, once again, are on our own. The FAYZ is my most brilliant idea yet.

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**Oh my. This is so strange... And hopefully, I'll find a way to explain it, later! And sorry it was so short :(**

**Tell me what you think, and your own theories about Nala and her strange ways, in a review! Thanks for reading!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	3. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

**Chapter three, let's DO this thang!**

**DISCLAIMER: I only own Nala, and she scares me.**

**DEDICATION: Once again, this is for the great and amazing Caris:)**

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**Chapter Three: Thnks Fr Th Mmrs**

_"But I want these words to make things right,_

_But it's the wrongs that make the words come to life..."_

_-Fall Out Boy, "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"_

"Perdido Beach is a little bit more then an hour away." Drake's voice sounded weary, and he seemed on the verge of collapsing. His condition wasn't surprising, as the two of them had been walking for more then ten hours without food, water, or rest. Nala nodded, settling herself down on the dry, dusty earth. She wasn't tired, as normal human afflictions didn't affect her, but it wouldn't do any good for her companion to weaken before they even reached their destination.

Drake slumped across from her, and she was struck with how hollow and sunken his cheeks and eyes were. "When was the last time you ate something?"

His face lit up at the mere mention of food, then he deflated once again. "I don't know. Days, maybe more." Nala took a rock and held it in both of her hands, concentrating. Before long, the rock morphed into what seemed to be a loaf of bread, which she handed to Drake. His eyes widened, but he grabbed it anyway, far too famished for questions.

"You picked the right side to be on, Drake," she said as he attacked the food. "I make sure that the people on my side never go hungry, although you should probably eat a little slower, or you'll--" Before she could finish her sentence, Drake leaned over and threw up into the sand.

Nala's nose wrinkled. "Told you." He sat back up, coughing, and she sighed, holding her hands out over the desert floor. A stream of moisture trickled out of the sand, drawn by her power, and she floated it up to touch his lips.

After he had drank his fill, Drake wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "What do you say?" Nala chirped. He frowned.

"Thank you," he replied begrudgingly.

_**.O.o.O.o.O.**_

After a few hours of sleep for Drake, they continued their trek.

Drake yawned and stretched his arm over his head. "That was probably the most uncomfortable place to sleep, _ever._" He glanced at Nala, who was completely bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as the saying went. "Did you even sleep at all?"

"I don't sleep." She smiled, and to Drake, that smile was more unnerving then Caine's threats had ever been. "I plot."

_**.O.o.O.o.O.**_

"Perdido Beach is in about fifteen minutes." Drake stopped and turned to face Nala. "What's the plan?" Her face took on a thoughtful air.

"You need a disguise," she replied quickly, and placed both hands on his face and watched his features distort, melting like hot wax. "Okay, that's done."

"I feel the same," he said flatly. Nala shook her head.

"You may _feel _the same," she explained, "but to anyone on the outside, you're a tanned, muscular surfer boy with bleach-blond dreadlocks and absolutely beautiful blue eyes to match mine." When he looked confused, she continued. "You're going to pretend to be my brother. Nala and Nico D'Karssen."

"D'Karssen?"

"My little joke. It's "Darkness" scrambled up."

_Good to know that my evil overlord has a sense of humor, _Drake thought shrewdly, but on the inside he was practically dying to get this _plan_, whatever it was, started. _Sam Temple better watch his back, because whatever Nala's planning, I'm gonna get her to go after him first. _He grinned his infamous shark grin for the first time since Caine had thrown him into the Darkness'- into _Nala's-_ cave.

_Who said that evil wasn't profitable?_

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**Okay, so I pretty much decided that I'm doing short chapters with quick updates. This fits my schedule better, okay? Haha, thanks. Anyways...**

**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	4. Sure Fire Winners

**For once, I have nothing to say! Enjoy, please.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own "Gone" which is Michael Grant's, and I don't own the song "Sure Fire Winners" by Adam Lambert...**

**DEDICATION: To the all-around awesome Caris L. Clearwater! **

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**Chapter Four: Sure Fire Winners**

_"We're coming up like killing machines,_

_our big guns gonna shatter your scenes..._

_It's pandemonium on the floor_

_'cause everybody wants a little more..."_

_-Adam Lambert, "Sure Fire Winners_

"There it is," Drake said, waving vaguely towards the buildings in the distance, silhouetted by the rising sun. "Perdido Beach; the town of heroes." Nala glanced at her companion, noting the dark emotion underlaying in his voice. She reached over and touched her hand to the arm that used to be a tentacle, and as they made contact, a freezing cold sensation swept over the place where her fingers lay. He glanced down, and his newly blue eyes met hers.

She smiled. "It won't be a town of heroes for long."

He raised both eyebrows in appreciation, and then glanced down at his right arm. "Where's my whip? I _will _be able to get it back, right?" His voice adopted a note of panic, and Nala could see his distress in his eyes.

_How pitiful. The only thing he loves is the tentacle attached to his arm. But still; that's a valuable trait if he wants to be on my side._

She exhaled loudly. "This is just a temporary disguise. We're going to infiltrate Perdido Beach, make them trust us. And when they do..." He looked up from his arm, distress changing to macabre expectation in seconds.

"We strike."

She grinned, showing white teeth; her canines were far longer and pointier then any human teeth were. "Exactly."

_**.O.o.O.o.O.**_

The two of them entered the town, and as it was early in the morning only a few kids were out and about; a Hispanic kid and a number of others, aiming and firing guns at round targets. Nala took the moment in time and froze it, and the air seemed to shimmer and distort. Seemingly out of nowhere, more humans materialized, but they were taller, older. Adults.

They were all paused like on a television screen, in various forms of animation. One was talking, distressed, on a cell phone, another was shaking the shoulders of a kid with a gun, to no avail. He couldn't see them, hear them, or feel them.

The adults could see the kids, the kids were oblivious to the adults.

The kids believed the adults had disappeared, when Nala had actually just made reality a little more complicated. The kids thought that they were alone, when the adults were watching them the whole time, wondering why when they tried to stop their children from running around and destroying things, from stealing cars, from killing each other, they wouldn't listen? Wondering why they couldn't touch their sons and daughters, wondering why they were just like ghosts, unseen, unheard? Nala smirked and wiggled her fingers.

"Hey!" the Hispanic kid yelled, running up to them after slinging the gun on his back. "Who're you?"

Nala played the part of a scared, ten-year-old girl to a T, hiding behind Drake as he held out his arms in a form of surrender, actually seething inside, wishing he could just kill this kid and get it over with. Nala pinched the back of his leg to make sure he remembered why they were here.

"I'm Nico D'Karssen," he said exactly as they had rehearsed it. "And this is my little sister, Nala." She peeked out from around his legs, widening her big, blue eyes in what looked like fear. "We used to live in the national park, before this... Whatever _this _is, happened."

The kid stuck out his hand, and Drake shook it. "I'm Edilio, and this is Perdido Beach. We call whatever happened the FAYZ, which means Fallout Alley Youth Zone. You can probably stay here, but I should take you to the mayor, first. Sam Temple."

Nala felt Drake tense, and she took his hand, the epitome of a frightened child, as they breached the front lines of the enemy and went to find Sam Temple.

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**There you have it!**

**REVIEW!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	5. This Love, This Hate

**Hey all, here's the quickly-updated chapter five! I tried to make it longer this time…**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone, or the song **

**DEDICATION: Yep, to Caris! This fic would have never happened without you :)**

**WARNING: This fic isn't for Quinn lovers.**

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**Chapter Five: This Love, This Hate**

_"Only few can sing like lions _

_'cause we sing until we're gone..._

_And we've got each other's backs until we're back where we belong..."_

_-Hollywood Undead, "This Love, This Hate"_

"What do we have here?" Sam Temple said, turning around on the office's swivel chair. Edilio motioned for both Drake and Nala to sit down, which they did, on the other chairs in the mayor's office. Drake repressed the urge to squirm on the hard, uncomfortable wooden seat, then wondered if it was something his new self –_Nico D'Karssen- _would do. He knew absolutely nothing about his new identity, and he really didn't want to screw this up for Nala and himself. But mostly for himself.

"I found them on the outskirts of town," Edilio was saying. "They're apparently from the national park, and they want to stay in town." Sam waved his hand dismissively.

"Sure, but here, we work for our keep."

"We're used to that," Drake replied, trying to keep the usual biting sarcasm from inhabiting his voice. Sam waved his hand once again, and the D'Karssens were ushered out of the office.

_**.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

"We've been here for a week, and nobody's died yet," Drake snarled, slamming his hands down on the table. Nala glanced up from where she was busy morphing small rocks into sandwiches for dinner. She cocked an eyebrow.

"Watch that tone of voice with me."

Drake exhaled loudly and dropped into a chair in the house he shared with this little girl, with the gaiaphage. "I hate waiting."

"I've been _waiting _for the past couple of decades." She also sat and passed him a sandwich. "And you want to see death? Fine. Who're you in the mood to kill?" She said this casually, as if murder was a daily dinner table discussion. Drake ran a hand through Nico's blond dreadlocks.

"Sam."

"Of course." She rolled her eyes. "I _know _that, but I'm saving him for something special. Anyone else?"

"Diana," he snarled, and as an afterthought, he added, "and Caine."

"No," she mused, finger to her lips. "We'll leave them until our takeover of Coates. We need someone close to home, someone we can make their death look like an accident... Someone Sam's close to."

"Astrid?" Drake sounded hopeful.

Nala stood, slamming her fists into the table, making the wood splinter and crack. "_Think_, Drake," she hissed. "Who have you worked with for the past week, _alone_?"

He also stood, his shark's grin looking out of place on Nico's handsome features. "Quinn."

"We have a winner," she replied bitingly, but then she also smirked. "Have fun. But remember, it has to look like an accident." His smirk widened.

"No problem."

_**.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Drake ran into town, Nico's dreadlocks flying everywhere, the epitome of distress all over his face. "Sam!" he yelled, running up to the boy, who was supervising the reconstruction of a building that had burnt down as a result of some kid smoking a cigarette. "Sam! This is an emergency!"

The blond looked up, an annoyed expression gracing his face. "What is it... Nico, was it?" Drake nodded.

"Yeah, but that's not important now. It's Quinn..." Sam's eyes widened.

"What's wrong with him? What happened?"

"We were fishing this morning, just me and him, out on a big boat..." Drake panted, trying to make the panic in his voice sound realistic. "When he hooked a fish. He was trying to reel it in, when it pulled him overboard. We were in one of the biggest boats from the dock..."

"Yeah, I got that!" Sam said, sounding frightened. Drake smirked internally.

"It's rudder wasn't protected. Quinn got caught in it... It's power was on high..." Drake laid a blanket out on the ground; the only thing left was a bloodied stump of a hand. "I'm really sorry, I tried my best to save him." Drake's internal smirk grew wider as actual tears began forming at the eyes of Nico D'Karssen, and those tears were mirrored in Sam's eyes.

"Brah..." Sam whispered, gazing at all that was left of Quinn.

_**.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

"I heard about the big _fishing accident_," Nala said later that day, as she passed her brother in the town sqare, on the way to help Mary out at the daycare. Her voice lowered, turned darker. "Good job, Drake."

"It was my pleasure," he said softly, happily.

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**There you have it... Sorry about Quinn's death, to all you Quinn lovers.**

**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	6. Coming Unglued

**I'm becoming a beast at updating. Here's chapter six!  
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**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone, or the song"Coming Unglued" by Ke$ha.  
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**DEDICATION: To Caris L. Clearwater, who gave me a challenge that I twisted to this fic before you now!  
**

**WARNING: This fic is getting a bit dark and violent. If you don't like, I'm sorry. But bear with me, it's always brighter after the dark :)  
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**Chapter Six: Coming Unglued**

_"But my cover will soon be blown,_

_if you ever look me in the eyes..."_

_-Ke$ha, "Coming Unglued"_

Quinn's funeral was held at dusk, and almost the whole town showed up to mourn the resident fisherman. Drake pulled off the previously unknown to him emotion of grief without a hitch, and Sam fully bought it. And when the bloodied remains of Quinn Gaither were lowered into the grave Edilio had dug, Sam finally broke down and buried his head on Astrid's shoulder. Drake walked up to the couple, and laid a comforting hand on Sam's arm.

"It'll be all right, brah."

Sam's head flew up at the uttering of the surfer term, and his eyes locked with Nico's blue ones. "Nico," he said, sounding emotionally drained. "Would you mind taking over the fishing, now that Quinn..." He trailed off, and Drake patted his arm.

"Of course. Anything to help." Inside, he was chuckling. Sammy boy was such a sucker. "And Sam... I'm really sorry. I feel almost like it was my fault..." Sam shook his head.

"You couldn't have prevented it" The leader of Perdido Beach sounded weary. "It's just a FAYZ."

"I guess you're right." Drake matched Sam's tired tone easily, remembering with relish how Quinn screamed as he was forced towards the scything rudder. "I couldn't have prevented it."

**_.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

Drake walked with Nala towards the market in the center of Perdido Beach, trying to seem like a protective big brother. As he glanced down at the blond girl at his side, he once again wondered how the power of the gaiaphage, power that had distributed all of the lesser powers, power that had rendered Caine Soren insane for months, could be trapped inside such a small, innocent body.

And then her eyes met his, and they flashed green, almost seeming to throw sparks in the afternoon light. She smiled, and took his hand in her ice cold grip.

"Nala, Nico, hi!" Sam's girlfriend, Astrid, said cheerfully as she intercepted them, her little brother in tow. "Nico, shouldn't you be fishing?" Drake resisted the urge to punch the blond twit in the face, and instead smiled.

"Nah, Sam gave me the day off. We're going to go pick up some food." Astrid nodded, and continued the conversation. Behind her, Little Pete and Nala locked eyes, and after what seemed like only seconds, he began screaming, and Nala began choking.

**_.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

**NALA'S POV:**

Astrid was talking to Drake, and I could tell by his stance that he was barely repressing his violent tendencies. However, I concluded that he could handle himself, and instead turned to examine the little boy behind Astrid's legs. I assumed he was a boy; his features were pretty enough to be feminine.

And then my dark blue eyes met his light blue ones, and I knew.

_So, this is my rival? _My mind-voice sounded like it was coming through clenched teeth. _This is the one who stopped the FAYZ from reaching its full potential? Little Pete. _His eyes widened as he realized who- and _what_- I was.

_Call me Peter, Nala. _His mind-voice sounded equally harsh.

I smirked. _My, how the great have fallen. Last time we met, was it back in the 1800's? I don't remember. But you were powerful back then, full of potential. And now look at you. Inhabiting the body of a four-year-old autistic._

_I have powers that you don't even know. _He sounded weak, trying to convince himself.

_Pitiful, _I scoffed. _We'll see how powerful you are when I'm killing the one you call your sister. _His body, Little Pete, began screaming, and I got a tickling sensation. Assuming that Peter was using part of his _power _to try and strangle me, I pretended to be choking while Astrid calmed down her brother and Drake, ever my faithful servant, knelt by my side.

_Oh, bad move, Peter. That just made the end for all your precious humans come a little bit quicker, and believe me, in both their end and yours, there will be no mercy._

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**Ahh! Haha. I already have both chapters seven and eight written out, and Sam fans won't like them. But you know what you have to do...**

**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	7. Manipulating Woman

**Wow, another update. I rock. Say it... I rock. Haha.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone, or the song!**

**DEDICATION: To Caris. What would we do without you?**

**WARNING: If you're a Sam-fan, beware. ...And Zil-fans should beware as well, but I don't think there's any of those.**

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**Chapter Seven: Manipulating Woman**

_"Better not try to get inside my head,_

_you'll find a nightmare waiting..."_

_-Ladyhawke, "Manipulating Woman_

"Today's the day," Nala said, sounding joyful as she practically skipped down the steps, glancing at the boy laying prostrate on the couch. "Ready to earn your keep, Drake?" At those words, he practically shot off of the sofa, eyes glinting expectantly.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes. Grab one of those bags, and follow me."

**_.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

"What's that smell?" Nala grabbed Drake's arm and shook it harshly. "Smell that? Do you smell that?" A crowd of kids were soon gathered around their dramatic performance, all sniffing the air.

"What the heck, Nala?" Drake said, his vehement tone sounding equally dramatic as he looked around, his movements exaggerated. "I can't smell anything!" Nala inhaled deeply.

"It smells like... _Meat_."

As soon as she said this, all of the gathered kids could smell it. Freshly roasted meat. All mouths present began to water. Sometimes, fish and vegetables just didn't cut it, and the deer that Hunter caught were never enough. As Nala followed her nose down the street, every kid in Perdido Beach was behind her.

They followed her to Sam's house.

Sam only lived in it once in a while, dividing his time between the mayor's office and Mary, Astrid, and John's house, which gave Drake and Nala the perfect opportunity to sneak in and fill the basement with rocks Nala had transformed into the most succulent food imaginable; food that could no longer be found in the FAYZ.

"I think I found it," Nala yelled, and flung open the wood hatch that led down to the basement of the house. The smoky smell of meat immediately filled the air, and the kids surged forward to look down.

The contents of the basement were perfectly legible in the bright morning light; piles of wrapped candy, strings of cured, dried meat, bags of bread hanging from the ceiling, barrels of butter and jugs of milk, unable to spoil in the room's freezing temperatures. Nala and Drake smirked as one as the kids behind them burst into loud yells of indignation, and Nala raised her arms until there was quiet.

"Who's house is this?" she asked loudly.

"Sam's!" the crowd of hungry kids screamed back.

"So who do we need to go to?"

"Sam!" part of the group shouted. The other half stayed quiet.

"Screw Sam," a loudmouthed kid known as Zil yelled. "Let's just get to that food!" The crowd roared in agreement as Nala frowned, and stampeded towards the basement. Drake watched from the sidelines as Nala stepped quickly next to Zil, tripped him, snapping his neck with one effective twist, making it seem as if he was trampled by the mass amounts of food-crazed kids.

Nala emerged unscathed, looking pointedly at Drake.

"'Kay, Nico. Go do your thing."

**_.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

Sam was sitting at his desk with Edilio across from him, going through Sam's list of daily duties he needed to attend to, when a knock came from outside the door. Edilio opened it, and Nico walked in.

"Hey, Nico," Sam said wearily.

"T'sup? Hey, Edilio, would you mind if I talked with Sam, y'know..." The Honduran glanced at Sam, who nodded. Edilio left, and the mayor motioned for Nico to sit down. He didn't.

"So, what's on your mind?"

"Oh, nothing, really," Nico said nonchalantly. "Your death."

Sam did an almost comical double-take. "Excuse me?" A scarily familiar grin stretched Nico's mouth as his features distorted and melted, as his right arm elongated and turned mottled red and grey, as he turned into Drake Merwin. Sam's eyes widened and he seemed glued in place as Drake pulled a pistol from inside his jacket and pointed it with deadly precision right at Sam's heart.

"You're not surviving this one," Drake said, and pulled the trigger.

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**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	8. My First Kiss

**Okay, let's just get into it, shall we?**

**DISCLAIMER: I only own my rather twisted brain.**

**DEDICATION: I hereby dedicate this freaky fic to Caris L. Clearwater. Although I'm not sure if she wants it... Well, she has it anyway! :P**

**WARNING: Yep. I'll say it again. Character death, so watch out! *coughexpeciallySamfanscough***

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******Chapter Eight: My First Kiss**

_"I said, no more sailors_

_and no more soldiers..._

_With your name in a heart_

_tattooed up on a shoulder..."_

_-3Oh!3, "My First Kiss"_

Edilio loitered around the outside of town hall until he deemed it all right to go back inside to finish business with Sam. That Nico kid couldn't have had _that _much to say.

And then he caught a glimpse of a mob coming down the street, a mob reminiscent of the one that Zil cooked up to hang Hunter, except this group was carrying mass amounts of food that had no right to be in the FAYZ, and at the head was a little blond girl. Nico's sister, Nala D'Karssen.

And that's when Edilio knew that something was deadly wrong.

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Little Pete hadn't stopped wailing ever since he had encountered and tried to choke that new girl. He kept chanting her last name, "D'Karssen", until that name was the only thing Astrid could think of. And when you think of things for hours on end, they begin to get a little scrambled, even in a brain as big as Astrid's.

_"D'Karssen... D'Karssen... D'Arkssen... Darkness..."_

Astrid's eyes snapped open.

_That can't just be a coincidence._

___**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Nala led the group of angry kids down the street, in search of Sam. Although, if Drake had done his job correctly, there wouldn't be much to search for anyway. Nala threw her head back and laughed.

Humans were such fun.

___**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Edilio burst into Sam's office and immediately cried out in distress. Sam was hung, limp and lifeless, from the ceiling fan, a bullet hole through his heart. His blood was smeared aimlessly on the white walls, and as Edilio looked, horrified, unable to turn away, he realized that the smears of crimson weren't aimless. They formed words.

_**Drake Merwin's back, and better then ever.**_

"_Dios salvar nos, _God save us."

___**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Drake ran to join Nala at the head of the group of Perdido Beach kids, grinning widely when a few shrieked in terror and over half of them went off and running, down the street. He glanced at Nala, who rolled her eyes.

"I got this."

She seemed to concentrate, and then four dozen replicas of her seemed to spring out of her original body, and they ran off down the street with superhuman speed, searching houses and herding kids none too gently back to the plaza. Drake watched as a Nala dragged Astrid and Little Pete from her house, and one even came back from Clifftop Resort, Lana in tow.

"What's going on?" she protested as she was thrown, along with Astrid, Pete, and Edilio, into the circle surrounded by Nalas. "What on _earth _is going on?" Drake moved in front of them, intensely gratified by their horrified expressions.

"You!" Astrid managed to choke out. Drake chuckled darkly.

"Me. You people should have known that it would have taken more then a tumble into a mineshaft to kill me. I guess Sammy learned that a bit too late." An anguished sound ripped from Astrid's throat as Edilio whispered something in her ear, engulfing her in his embrace.

"Sam's dead?" The words seemed to echo and ripple through the crows as the original Nala came to stand by Drake.

"Yes, your precious leader, or mayor, or whatever he was, is dead. And now I'm taking his place." As soon as she spoke those words, the ground seemed to shake as Orc, the rock monster-boy and previous bully, parted the crowd. With Howard behind him, he stalked up to Nala and shoved his mostly-gravel face right up to hers.

"And why should we listen to _you_, girl?"

A storm of fury broke out over her ten-year-old face, and she raised her right hand. Almost immediately, acid began eating away at the human part of Orc, and the crowd watched in rapt horror as he screamed. As the skin disintegrated, gravel that covered the rest of his body filled in, until Orc was fully rock, hardly recognizable as a human being anymore.

"And _that's _why you should listen to me," she said, sounding satisfied. As Howard led Orc away, muttering something about beer, Nala raised her hands, quieting the murmurs of the crowd. "Look. Drake and I have already killed Quinn, some obnoxious kid named Zil, and Sam. More of you will be next, right now, if you will, unless you do exactly as I say." The crowd was as silent as the proverbial grave. "You will stay in town. You have food, water, but no weapons. I have them all. If you leave, you die. Drake, myself, and a few choice individuals are going to destroy Coates Academy."

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**There you have it. And to Rouge, sorry about Orc, there, but don't worry. It'll bite Nala in the butt, eventually :) (And sorry about the lack of my Spanish speaking skills with Edilio...)**

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	9. Pain

**Mmkay, first, a quick author's note. I got the first Maximum Ride book from the library yesterday, and I finished it in the same day! It was sooooo good! :) Now, to business!**

**DISCLAIMER: See previous chapters, please.**

**DEDICATION: To Caris L. Clearwater, as always.**

**WARNING: Mmhm. I don't think it's as death-y in this chapter, and it's rather short. Sorry 'bout that.**

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**Chapter Nine: Pain**

_"Pain, without love,_

_pain, can't get enough..._

_Pain, I like it rough,_

_'cause I'd rather feel pain then nothing at all..."_

_-Three Days Grace, "Pain"_

Drake led them up the hill to Coates Academy, _them _being himself, Nala, Orc (Howard had been forced to stay behind), Lana, Astrid (who had insisted upon coming, leaving Little Pete in the care of Mary Terrafino), and Edilio with a half-dozen of his soldiers, without guns, purely for show. Drake's eyes gleamed as the pile of rubble that had once passed for a boarding school came into view.

This was going to be fun.

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

**NALA'S POV:**

The fight at Coates- could it even be called a fight?- went extremely well. As soon as we had charged through the gates, about fourteen extremely malnourished kids were upon us. Their leader, my former servant, Caine, was the only one that attempted to deter us, with a few pitiful blasts of his telekinetic power, and then I motioned for Drake.

He whipped Caine once, with the kind of macabre glee that I know he revels in, and Caine fell to his knees. Drake raised his whip-arm again, hatred apparent in his face, but I stopped him. Caine, after all, was once my most loyal servant. Maybe, with some good food and the right motivation, he could be so again.

All in all, there were only a few casualties, all on Caine's side, but nothing I particularly cared about. After we detained all of the Coates kids, we marched them back to Perdido Beach.

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

"Everyone in the church!" one of the many Nalas screamed, and the three hundred-plus kids were herded into the huge building. The real Nala stood in the entrance, smirking.

"Here's how things are gonna go down." She began pacing. "I want one of you- only one. His name is Little Pete Ellison." A strangled cry came from near the back of the crowd, as Astrid shielded her little brother from view. "I'm giving you until the end of the day to give him to me. And although I could take him by force, I think I'll play a little game with you.

"Every day you don't give me _Little Pete_, one of you is going to die."

A bark of laughter came from beside Nala as she turned to walk away; Drake. He made to follow her, but she held out her hand.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"With you?" Drake's statement came out sounding like a question. Nala chuckled.

"Get in there with the damned, human. I have no more need of you." A flurry of emotions passed over his usually stoic face, hurt, disbelief, anger, finally settling on indignant rage. His whip-arm raised, and he charged, mouth open in a silent roar. Nala flicked her fingers his way, rolling her eyes as her former servant was sent flying over the heads of the mixed kids from Coates and Perdido Beach. He slammed into the opposite wall and slid to the floor, not moving again.

"You have until dusk," Nala repeated, and left, the heavy church doors crashed shut behind her.

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**Don't worry, Drake's not dead :)**

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	10. Tidal Wave

**Chapter ten, ye-yuh! I was in Barnes and Noble and I read LIES! And I had like thirty-five pages to go and my mom made me leave :(**

**DISCLAIMER: See other chapters if you really care.**

**DEDICATION: To Caris! I promise I'll pull off DRAKE\(CENSORED)!**

**WARNING: I don't think I have much to warn about in this chapter... Yay me!**

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**Chapter Ten: Tidal Wave**

_"All my life I wish I broke mirrors __instead of promises,_

___'cause all I see is a shattered conscience staring back at me..._

___I wish I had covered all my tracks completely,_

___'cause I'm so afraid, is that the light at the far end of the tunnel, or just the train?"_

___-Owl City, "Tidal Wave"_

"You're not _touching _Petey," Astrid screamed, hustling her brother to the far corner of the church. The group of kids followed, led by Caine Soren, his eyes sunken with hunger.

"We have to," he rasped. "She said that if we don't give him up by tonight, one of us is going to die. And Diana's already near death." He gestured to the black-haired girl, who was sprawled on one of the church's pews. "Just give me your brother; he doesn't know what's going on, anyway."

"No," Astrid protested, choking back tears.

"She's right," a bleary voice uttered from behind Caine. He spun around and came face-to-face with Drake Merwin, his face bloody and bruised from his encounter with Nala. Caine sneered and raised his palms, about to blow Drake to oblivion, but then, to everyone's astonishment, the psychopath raised both his whip and his good hand in surrender. Caine's eyes widened, but he didn't lower his hands. "Just shut up for once, Soren, and hear me out."

Caine raised an eyebrow. "Make one wrong move, _Merwin_, and you'll be dead five times over." Drake sneered.

"You're so weak, I doubt you could kill a fly. But whatever. The point is, Nala can't get her hands on the retard. She wants him for something, and if that something gets completed, I can pretty much guarantee that every single one of us'll be _dead five times over._" He glanced back at Astrid with his cold, grey eyes. "Agree?" His voice was full of malice.

"Yes." She matched his tone perfectly, and stared right into his eyes with her cool blue ones. "And don't call him a retard.

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

___Day one, _Astrid scribbled into the blank pages of an old hymnbook she had found, _Nala finally gave us some food, and took one of our kids in return. He had to be only seven or eight years old, and his sister was screaming and crying the entire time. It was horrible. He didn't come back._

_Caine and the rest of the Coates kids took the lion's share of the food, which they ate slowly, as Lana advised them to. She also healed the injuries Drake had sustained from his skirmish with Nala, getting only a grunt of what might have been thanks in return._

_I think we're split up into little cliques all over the church; Mary, John, Orsay, Nerezza, and the prees on the steps and around the altar, Orc, Howard, and people like them, along with Zil's crew, on the balcony, the Coates kids huddled around the door, Dekka, Brianna, Jack, Albert and a few others lounging on the pews, and myself, Petey, Diana, Caine, Lana, Edilio and Drake in this corner. It really is an odd alliance._

"Why're you writing?" Drake asked in a contempt-filled voice from his place between Caine and Little Pete. Astrid graced him with her best scathing look.

"Because it exercises my brain, something you don't have," she spat back. "Murderer."

"Don't be bitter," he retorted, smirking. "Sammy had it coming to him." Caine looked up, surprised, from the food he was eating.

"Sam's dead?"

"Well, you don't exactly see him here, do you?" Astrid hissed, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. She swiped at them furiously as Edilio put a comforting arm around her and Lana's dog, Patrick, nosed at her leg. She ruffled his fur and smiled weakly at Edilio.

_I don't know how I feel about having Drake this close to me. On one hand, he (sort of) defended Petey against Caine. Well... Telling myself the truth, I do mind. I mind a lot. I hate it; I hate him. And I miss Sam._

___**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

_____Day two._

_____I think that this is hell. But who would have known that they devil would have the face of a little girl?_

_____

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**Gah, this story's so weird. And you can kind of see where I'm going with the pairing, if you squint :)**

**And I think it's a kind of macabre mix of Gone, LOST, and Maximum Ride... Haha. But I know where I'm going with it, thankfully. I already have the next two chapters written out, and all you have to do is...**

**REVIEW!**

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	11. My Obsession

**Let's DO this! (Remember, the italics are Astrid writing in her "journal" of sorts.)**

**DISCLAIMER: I only own my twisted brain. I don't even own Caris's twisted pairing!**

**DEDICATION: To the always-amazing Caris L. Clearwater!**

**WARNING: Mmhmm. No Diana fans (kind of). Sorry.**

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**Chapter Eleven: My Obsession**

_"Your automatic world makes running easy_

_and turns tables around..."_

_-Breathe Carolina, "My Obsession"_

_Day three._

_The third person was just taken. She was ten years old, blond hair and blue eyes, exactly like Nala herself. I think we have all finally gone into a state of shock. Maybe, if Sam were here, he'd know what to do. We're like sitting ducks, all silently waiting for death. Except for Petey; he's been rocking back and forth, chanting "D'Karssen" again._

"Would you _shut _him _up_?" Caine snarled, kneading his forehead with the heels of his hands. "Maybe we _should _just give him to that girl, at least it would get rid of this headache."

"How about _you _shut up, _hombre_?" Edilio spat back. Astrid's eyes met Lana's and they both shook their heads.

_It was kind of funny, and I almost _laughed_. I didn't know I could still laugh._

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

___Day eleven._

___For the past nine days the kids that have been taken were all under eight years old. The pain in seeing them dragged from our kind-of safe haven never goes away. I constantly wonder when it's going to be me, or someone from our alliance. _

___Speaking of our alliance, I think we're getting at least a little bit better. We're not as hostile towards each other as we were; I think we've all realized just how close to death we really are._

_____**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_  


___Day thirteen._

"Where's Diana?" Caine asked as soon as they woke up from sleeping on the carpeted church floor. They all looked around; no black-haired girl.

"I'll check the bathrooms," Lana volunteered, seeing Caine's expression, and left. Caine sank to the ground, realization clouding his dark eyes.

"Today was her fifteenth birthday," he muttered. She's gone."

_In a way, I'm jealous of Diana. My birthday was exactly a week before Nala came to Perdido Beach, and if I had known... No. I wouldn't have left Petey. At least, that's what I keep telling myself._

"The next time one of those girls shows up to take someone, I'm giving myself up." Caine's voice sounded determined. "I don't care if I die anymore." From the dark corner he had claimed for himself, Drake shook his head.

"You're not going to do that."

"And tell me one reason why I shouldn't, Merwin?" Caine spun around to face the other boy, sounding close to hysterics. "Diana's gone. She was the only thing I had!" Drake moved closer to the group, a strange half-smile on his lips.

"And now you have nothing. I have nothing. None of us have _anything_."

"And what is _that _supposed to mean?" Lana snarled, holding Patrick close. Drake's half-smile became a full-blown grin.

"We have nothing to lose."

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**There ya have it! Work starts today, so more chapters may be slow in coming... But I'll try my hardest!**

**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	12. Save Me, San Fransisco

**And thusly, we move along in this twisted tale!**

**DISCLAIMER: See other chapters... If you dare!**

**DEDICATION: To Caris. What would we do without your twisted pairing ideas?**

**WARNING: AWW, I love this chapter. The beginning of it's kind of dark (Nala enjoys killing people, so...) but it's basically our little group of survivors kind of bonding. And I do love cute bonding. :) And I have no idea what color hair Lana has.**

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**Chapter Twelve: Save Me, San Fransisco**

_"I've been high, I've been low,_

_I've been yes, and I've been oh, hell no!"_

_-Train, "Save Me, San Fransisco"_

_Day twenty-four._

_Howard was taken today. He kicked and screamed the entire way, begging Orc to come and save him. But Orc couldn't do anything, none of us could do anything._

Orc stomped over to their corner and, without a word, sat heavily next to Astrid. She patted his rock arm. "Welcome to our alliance, Orc." He sighed, the gravel covering him moving wetly.

"Call me Charles."

**_o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

_Day forty-nine._

_We're all beginning to get extremely restless. Caine just sits against the wall, his eyes dark and dead. I hadn't realized he loved Diana that much. And we're all beginning to..._

"...stink," Lana said angrily. "The soap in the bathroom ran out two days ago, and it was a challenge to wash my hair in the sink, anyway. But if I'm going to die, I want to at least smell decent!"

_With so many people dying every day, and my own death on the way as well, it's a petty thing to complain about. But I agree with her. The boys, however, couldn't care less, and it smells like a toxic waste plant in here._

"I found these in some drawer," Orc said, tossing something in the air. Drake, with his quick reflexes, snapped out his whip, coiling it around the mystery object, then he hissed in pain and swore loudly. Astrid covered Little Pete's ears.

"You don't throw _scissors_, dude," he admonished Orc through clenched teeth, yanking the rusty pair of blades from the tough skin of his whip-arm and wiping the blood on his shirt. "And why would we _want _these, anyway?" Orc shrugged and collapsed back to the ground.

"The girls don't wanna deal with their hair 'nymore," he grunted. Astrid grabbed the scissors and smiled widely.

"Who wants to go first?" she said in the best creepy voice she could manage, snapping the scissors open and shut menacingly. Lana actually laughed; it sounded like a welcome release of tension.

"What are you, the demon barber of Perdido Beach?" she joked, positioning herself in front of Astrid. "Hack it all off. I don't need it, anyway." Astrid snipped and cut, until all of Lana's reddish-blond hair was on the church floor.

"I feel hot," Lana said. "It's the new style: _no wash and go._" Astrid chuckled and quickly cut off all of Petey's blond hair, until all he had was a little bit of fuzz.

"Who's next?" Edilio raised his hand, and black locks were soon added to the ever-growing pile of hair. Astrid cleaned the stray hairs from the scissors with her shirt. "Caine, it's your turn." He turned away.

"No way in hell."

"We are in hell." Astrid grabbed a chunk of his dark hair and forcibly hacked it off. He grunted and relaxed so she could finish the job. "Drake, get over here." He hesitated.

"Only if you promise not to scissors-murder me in cold blood."

"Oh, it wouldn't be in _cold _blood," she muttered, cleaning the scissors of Caine's hair, "but don't worry. I haven't forgiven you, but I'm not a _murderer_." His grey eyes darkened, but his strands of dark blond hair joined the pile like all the rest. He motioned for the scissors, and Astrid reluctantly handed them over.

"It's your turn, brain girl."

"Not you. Give them to Lana." He exhaled loudly, but gave the scissors to the Healer anyway. Astrid's long, light blond hair was thrown onto the pile.

_Sam loved my hair._

"Now," Lana said, a tinge of what could have been happiness in her voice, "who wants to give Patrick a haircut?" The golden retriever looked up and whimpered. Lana snapped the scissors menacingly, but her eyes were smiling.

_It was a fiasco, yet kind of hilarious. Edilio practically belly-flopped on Patrick, and Lana wielded the scissors. Orc tried to help by keeping Patrick down, but he's so big that I think it did more harm then good. Caine and Drake were watching disdainfully from the sidelines, but I saw them exchange a look and then plunge into the fray._

_All of the remaining kids were giving us odd looks, like how on earth could we be having something like _fun _at a time like this? But I think our little group needed it; it might be the only thing keeping us alive. And we _are _a group. Even more then that, maybe. A family of sorts, bonded by trauma._

_I think that today we've all realized fully that our death is immanent, so we're just going to live while we can? Ugh, I, Astrid Ellison, at a loss for words. It's pathetic, and a first._

Lana rushed in, cups of ice-cold water in her fists, and with a scream, she dumped them all over the mass of bodies writhing on the floor with one near-bald dog. "Ha, gotcha!"

_Lana's an optimist. And believe me, we need what that balances out._

"D'you think that this counts as animal cruelty?" Edilio asked, snipping off another piece of golden fur from the squirming Patrick. "...nah."

_Edilio's like a soldier. He's tough and strong on the outside, but on the inside he has the sweetest heart I think I've ever seen._

"C'mere, ya stupid mutt..." Orc tried to get a firm hold of the dog, but even Patrick could squirm through his fumbling grip. "Aw, crap."

_Orc, I kind of feel bad for. Nala destroyed the only human part of him that was left, and I think that she might be sorry for that in the end. He's practically indestructible._

"I have dog hair in places dog hair has _no _right to be," Caine grumbled as Lana snuck behind him and poured another freezing cup of water over his newly shorn head. He yelled out in surprise. "_Lana_!"

She laughed loudly. "Trust no one, Soren." He scowled.

_Caine's a strange one to read. But all the same, I think he's going through the same thing I think I'm going through. He just lost Diana, and I lost Sam. But I think that we've both moved on as much as we could; we're going to die soon, too._

Patrick shook, as only dogs can, spraying dog hair all over the closest person, Drake. He shook his own head, spitting hair out of his mouth. "Disgusting! C'mere, dog, you'll pay for that." He wrapped his whip-arm around Patrick's torso, hefting the squirming animal into the air. Lana gasped in horror.

"Put him down, _now_," she demanded. The mood in their corner immediately turned tense. Drake smirked.

"What, and leave all that hair on his stomach?" Caine barked out a surprised laugh, and Lana laughed as well, effectively dissolving the hostile tint in the air as she moved under Patrick and began snipping away.

_Drake's even harder to read then Caine. He's completely evil, I know that, he _killed _Sam, for heaven's sake. But I keep having to remind myself of that fact..._

_And then you have myself, the kind-of motherly figure in our group, I guess. and Petey, the whole reason we're in this mess, in a roundabout way. I hate having us die because of him, but Drake was right. If we give him up to Nala, our deaths are just going to come even faster._

When a Nala came into the church to bring the night's food ration to the two hundred and fifty-five kids still alive, she beheld five soaking-wet teenagers, a four-year-old covered in dog hair, and a gravel-monster laying on the carpet with a soggy dog on top of him, all having spontaneous spurts of laughter.

She frowned, and reported back to her mistress.

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**So there you have it. The group of awesomeness, Pete, Astrid, Lana, Edilio, Patrick, Orc, Caine, and Drake. And you know what YOU have to do...**

**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	13. Backbone

**This story is odd. This is partly not my fault. It's my brain's fault, okay? ****(And I'm writing a Maximum Ride oneshot... But that's a different story. Literally.)**

**DISCLAIMER: No no, no no. That's all I'm gonna say.**

**DEDICATION: To Caris L. Clearwater, as always :)**

**WARNING: No... Um... Computer Jack fans? Oh, and no Brianna fans. Sorry.**

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**Chapter Thirteen: Backbone**

_"You look so sound asleep,_

_I can't believe that your backbone's missing_

_and you never had a clue at all..."_

_-There For Tomorrow, "Backbone"_

_Day sixty-three._

_Computer Jack was taken today, and we saw our very first riot. And guess what? It was directed at me._

"They just took Jack!' Brianna screamed, standing to her full height on one of the pews, pointing her finger at Astrid. "And it's _your _fault! Just give up the kid, so none of us'll have to d-d..." And the Breeze was crying. Her tough-as-nails demeanor faded away as she bawled into Dekka's arms.

Dekka also glared at Astrid, as if asking _why_. Why are all of these kids dying? Why can't you just give your brother up to death?

"This isn't my fault," Astrid said, trying to keep her voice calm. None of what's happening is my fault!" Brianna untangled herself from Dekka's strong arms and stalked towards Astrid, eyes red and bloodshot.

"I loved Jack," she hissed, not knowing that behind her, Dekka's face fell. "I loved him, and he was only a kid. _You killed him_!" She raced towards Astrid with superhuman speed, hatred emanating from her eyes, but then she was thrown back against the pews. Dekka ran to her side.

"This isn't Astrid's fault. It's none of our faults." Caine came to stand next to Astrid, a cold glint in his dark eyes. "And I know most of you hate me, and I can say with certainty that the feeling's mutual, but you all need to shut up. We're all going to die, and I don't mean like in our grand old seventies or eighties, I mean like _in the next couple of days_. Now, all of you shut your mouths about Little Pete, Astrid, or losing someone. _We have all lost someone already_, so quit whining about it, 'cause we'll be with them soon."

Every mouth was open as Caine skulked back to the shadows. "Nice speech, man," Edilio said disbelievingly as Drake raised his eyebrows.

_I'm kind of speechless. I just got defended by Caine Soren. Ah, such is the total weirdness of the FAYZ._

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

___Day sixty-four. _

___Brianna was just dragged out of the double-doors of the church._

"I'm not one to make grim jokes," Drake snorted, "but can somebody say _karma_?"

_It was completely horrible, and uncalled for, and I can't believe I did it, but I laughed. At something Drake Merwin said. About someone's _death_._

_That tears it; I have officially gone over the edge._

___**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

_____Day seventy-eight._

_I can't believe I've spent seventy-eight days in this dump!_

"We need something to do," Lana announced. "We could... Um... Sing songs?" Edilio snorted with laughter and Drake, in a completely fake monotone, began singing a song of his own composition.

"Oh, we're a bunch of kids, sitting in a church, waiting for our death..." He drug out the word 'death', and Astrid covered her ears.

"Okay, bad idea," Lana admitted.

"No duh." Caine rolled his eyes. "Well, now we know that Drake can't sing to save his life..." The five of them snickered as the corner of Drake's mouth twitched upwards. "Any more ideas?"

Lana glanced over her shoulder to see what the other kids were doing to pass the time. Some were playing cards, some were talking in hushed groups of two or three, and occasionally some kid would bang on the old organ until somebody yelled at him to shut up.

The church itself was in a constant state of disrepair; windows broken from where kids had attempted to make their escape (they had always been brought back, only to be chosen by Nala the next day), piles of human waste (the toilets had stopped working long ago), and the constant annoyance of rats and bugs.

Sometimes, the burden of living from day to day in such squalid, hopeless conditions drove kids to ask a Nala to be taken away, or sometimes, they just did it themselves. One night, everyone had awoken to a sickening _crack_ that came from a thirteen-year-old boy dropping himself, headfirst, from the high balcony of the church to the concrete floor below.

Lana had been too late. And even if she hadn't been, the boy would have only tried again.

_314 kids were in the church when this bloodbath started. Now there are only 226. When will Nala ever stop? Will she seriously kill all of us? I know one thing for certain; she'll never get Little Pete._

_It's not even me that's keeping him from Nala anymore. If it was up to me, I don't even know if Petey would be among us anymore; every time I witness someone being taken I envision myself running up to stop one of the Nalas, handing her my brother. _

_No, the real reason Petey's even alive right now is Drake, however it pains me to say._

_He still calls him a retard, and every time he does I can practically feel his slaps on my cheek. Practically see his teeth bared in an ugly expression. Practically see him leveling a gun at Sam's chest. But every time I hear whispers about stealing Petey in the night to save their own skin, Drake gives them a look so ice cold I'm sure it stops the whispers dead._

_And I can't help but be grateful._

_He's saving Petey for his own gain, I'm sure of it. But he's still saving him. Saving him from Nala. Saving him from these kids that are bloodthirsty because of all of their own blood that has been spilt. _

_Saving him from me._

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**You know what I like...**

**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	14. Blackbirds

**Here we go!**

**DISCLAIMER: No own Gone!**

**DEDICATION: As always, to my good pal Caris L. Clearwater! Go read her Drake\Caine story "Possessive" ;)**

**WARNING: No Bug fans. Wait... Are there any of those? I think not.**

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**Chapter Fourteen: Blackbirds**

_"Lay the sick ones down,_

_the bells'll ring,_

_put pennies on their eyes,_

_let the dead men sing..."_

_-Linkin Park, "Blackbirds"_

"Are you sure you don't want to give him to me _today_?" Nala- the _real _Nala, not one of her mindless clones- asked, her tone sickly sweet. "You can still save yourselves while you have time, you know." She tapped her designer shoe-clad foot against the squalid floor of the church.

"Go to hell," someone shouted from the back corner. Nala scowled. Drake. That little cretin. Inside the church, the rebellious cry had intensified into a chant that the weary kids soon adopted gleefully, every single one.

"_Go to hell,_," they bellowed, some of them pumping their fists in the air in victory. "_Go to hell!_" Nala's scowl deepened.

"You are in hell," she spat, and grabbed the ear of a chubby looking boy that had been trying to sneak past her, thinking of himself as invisible. _Yawn_. She could see though _that _easily. She pulled her whimpering prey after her, slamming the church doors shut after she had stalked through them.

"Kill him, please," Nala snarled at one of the underlings of herself has she shoved her victim behind her. "I don't feel like doing it myself."

Usually she loved it; the shriek of a life leaving the body, the way the eyes dimmed, the way the heart slowed, but not today. She wanted Peter. She wanted to watch him writhe under her power, to _finally _submit to her. But today wasn't the day.

_But it will soon come, Peter. And when it does, oh, you'll be sorry._

She could still hear his thoughts, if she concentrated. They still had that age-old bond of what used to be trust. Peter probably could hear her thoughts as well, and she hoped he could, because she was thinking feverently about his death.

Their bond of thought began back in the 1200's. Peter had been a physician in a royal court, but he had also, secretly, been obsessed with forbidden magic, particularly magic that granted longevity.

And his experiments had succeeded.

Every rat, dog, even larger animals like horses that he tested had lived, presumably, forever. And then Peter picked an orphan off of the streets, a ten-year-old blond girl with striking blue eyes, and tested it on her.

She lived, and couldn't be killed.

Peter applied the magic to himself.

Both the magician and his acolyte never aged. Peter began training the little girl, who called herself _Nallah_, even though the spelling of her name changed with every different place they traveled to. He began training her in his trade, teaching her all of the magic he knew.

And they lived on.

The two of them traveled, alone, to the New World, where Nallah had been drawn to what she called a _place of great power_. Peter couldn't resist the lure of that much might, and he trekked over mountains, through rivers, across plains, until he and Nallah reached the ocean, and what is modern-day California. And the source of the power.

It was a deep cave, full of green crystals that made Peter's ageless skin tingle with pain, but Nallah had been mesmerized.

_"We need to get away from this place," Peter said urgently, pulling at Nallah's pale arm. She tugged herself away, still gazing into the roiling green mass. "This is bad magic!"_

_"No." Nallah broke herself away and gazed her mentor straight in the eye. "This isn't magic. This is _power_." Peter's eyebrows furrowed and he finally saw sense as the green particles shot up into the air. _

_"If it's power, then it's the kind of power no human has the right to wield."_

_"Then it's a good thing I'm not a human, eh, Peter?" She sneered when he looked confused. "You stripped me of my humanity the minute you forced me to become one of your never-dying experiments. Now back off, coward, and let me claim my rightful power."_

_Before Peter could stop her, she had flung herself, headfirst, into the cave of swirling green. As a final, parting gift, she shot a blast of the green sparks directly at Peter, causing him to glow briefly, then disappear. _

Nala had injured herself and the thing under the mountain, which then had fused together and formed a lump of green particles, which lay in the cave for more years then it could count, but she had injured Peter even more. He no longer had a body, but was a detached soul, which could inhabit one body at a time, but never die. Both Nala and Peter were both gifted and plagued with eternal life.

Peter had inhabited many bodies, all in the same family line, all men, and all conveniently having some form of the name Peter. The first was a servant of a wealthy merchant in the 1700's, who attempted to colonize California. The servant, who's name was Petré Ellizona, had a son, and he had a son, and thusly the small town of Perdida in California was founded.

After years of pondering how to keep Nala in the cave and the people of Perdida _out _of the cave, Peter, through Pete J. Ellison, marked the entrance to the cave as a dangerous mine shaft back when Perdida had a sister town, a gold-rush community called Ariza. The people of both Perdida and Ariza stayed far away from that cave, which pleased Peter greatly.

In 1893, when Perdida was changed to Perdida Beach, a man stumbled into town. He was passed off as another drunk traveler, but then he began raving about a monster under a mountain. Peter, through the body of Petras Ellison, saw his eyes.

His crazed, dark eyes with swirls of green molecules in them. Thankfully, the man was put away as insane as soon as he began blathering about being able to see through walls.

In 1944, the Perdia, Now _Perdido _Beach Nuclear Power Plant was built, and every Ellison generation that Peter inhabited worked there. And then, in 1987, the meteor struck and a man was killed.

Peter began to get frightened, if only a little bit. He suspected that Nala fed off of radiation; and _that's _what the green particles were.

But thirteen years passed, and nothing happened.

Then, one afternoon, Peter was roughly yanked from his body in Pete Ellison Sr., and transported to the next male in the Ellison line, Little Pete. As soon as he was in the mind of the four-year-old autistic, Peter was immediately blown away. There was power here. Power that had stopped whatever had just obliterated all of the adults from reaching the kids, as well. Power, maybe, that could even combat Nala's.

_"Who are you?"_ Little Pete asked in his mind. Peter answered, if a bit startled. No one had ever sensed his presence before.

_"My name is Peter, like you. I don't have a body of my own, I'm afraid, and I'm rather attached to your family."_

_"It's fine," _Little Pete answered. _"Do you know about the evil, Peter? I can feel it. It's hidden, but I don't think that it will stay hidden for long."_

_"I feel the same way. And when she- it arises, we're going to be the ones to stop it, Pete. We need to stop it, even if every other person perishes in the attempt. It's what we're here for."_

**_o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o._**

Nala pushed Peter's trivial thoughts from her mind and concentrated on the matter at hand; the supervision of her creation.

Even though she had no need to eat or drink, she had an ice-cold bottle of lemonade in one hand as she lounged beneath an umbrella as one of her underlings fanned her; watching the construction of her colosseum.

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**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	15. Rock Show

**Hey all of you readers, welcome to the newest installment of this lovely story! This begins a series of rather short chapters, so hopefully I'll be updating pretty quickly.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone.**

**DEDICATION: To my good pal, Caris L. Clearwater!**

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**Chapter Fifteen: Rock Show**

_"We waited for love..._

_But there wasn't anybody_

_around so,_

_we left town with the rock show..."_

_-Lady Gaga, "Rock Show"_

Drake's eyes flickered open, and he stifled a groan. He was still in the dilapidated church, still in Nala's clutches, still in this alliance of sorts. Another groan came, and this time he let it out. Everyone was passed caring whether or not Drake Merwin groaned.

He rubbed his temples, trying to remember the dream. For the past month or so, he couldn't remember, it had been the same. A replay of his first-ever detention back at Coates.

The detention itself had been pretty horrible, just him and a Nazi-like teacher in Coates' dungeon (even though it had been called a "basement"), and he hadn't really even done anything worthy enough to get in trouble. That kid hadn't even bled that much.

And yet, Drake had dreamed about that detention for more then three weeks because it represented something. Not that he hated Coates, not even that he enjoyed causing people pain.

He dreamed about that detention because at the end, he had walked out of that dungeon-like room and was _free_. Drake longed to be free more then anything he had ever wanted. He hated the hopelessness and despair that was imbibed in this room, hated the days and lives ticking by, and hated _Nala_.

Even thinking her name made his vision go almost white with rage. She had used him, gave him a taste of what it was like to be powerful, and thrown him away like trash. Left him behind to try and reforge his existence among people who hated him enough to kill him, but feared him enough to stay away. Except for six kids and a dog.

Drake exhaled softly, looking around him at the filthy, sleeping bodies. Caine, immediately to his left, mouth open in a silent snore. Lana, deep circles under her eyes, flies buzzing around her head. Orc, hulking and monstrous, leaning back against a pew. Patrick, whimpering in sleep, curled up next to Orc. Edilio, hands under his head, sleep-talking quietly in Spanish. Astrid, hand on Little Pete's leg, her face serene as she slept. And Little Pete himself was in a deep REM state, sprawled in Drake's lap.

He quickly debated the pros and cons of moving the little boy, pros being _no kid in his lap_, but eventually decided to just leave him. In reality, Astrid started to wake up, so further action on Drake's part wasn't possible.

Drake leaned his head back before Astrid could see that he was awake, and watched through slitted eyes as she reviewed the situation in front of her. "Petey," she hissed as if the little boy could hear her, and Drake felt as Little Pete was lifted off of him. "Stay away from Drake."

_So much for trust._

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**And there you have it. Sorry for it's shortness!**

**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	16. Airplanes

**Wow, I can't believe we're at sixteen chapters already!**

**DISCLAIMER: You know the drill.**

**DEDICATION: Caris, without you, this story would have never come to be. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing... Just kidding :)**

**NOTE: When Edilio uses Spanish, he says "spawn of the devil".**

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**Chapter Sixteen: Airplanes**

_"Can't we pretend that airplanes in the night sky_

_are like shooting stars..._

_I could really use a wish right now, wish right now,_

_wish right now..."_

_-B.o.B. and Hayley Williams, "Airplanes"_

_Day one hundred and five._

_I'm starting to wish that I would be the one chosen, just to get out of this. I've been thinking thoughts like this more and more lately, and it's starting to get unnerving. I've never been suicidal before. Then again, I've never been stuck in a church with a bunch of depressed kids who haven't showered in months. It kind of rubs off on you. And I'm not saying exactly what "it" is, either. _

_Oh, look at me, re-developing my sense of humor. I think this little nugget of irony needs to be shared with the group..._

"Har-dee-har-har," Drake said sarcastically, gulping down some warm water a Nala had shoved through the door seconds before. Being generally the scariest person in the vicinity, he usually got first pick of the food. "That's simply hilarious, Astrid. Maybe you should add that to your memoirs later, once we get out of this church." She rolled her eyes, accustomed to the biting sarcasm, and picked up her pen again.

_There's just something really unappealing about being stuck with the same six people for this long. And nothing has happened, other then the daily choosing. _

_Which makes me wonder. Why hasn't Nala chosen anyone out of our little group? Caine and Drake are huge threats, and so is Orc; get rid of them, and it wouldn't be long before she got Little Pete. So why is she choosing to wait? What are her motives? Oh, great, now I'm getting a headache._

_I wish I had some Advil..._

As Astrid rubbed her forehead with the heels of her hands, a small bottle of orange pills fell into her lap. She looked up. Nothing was there. "Who gave this to me?" she asked, holding up the bottle. The others shrugged.

"Where would somebody _get _those pills?" Lana asked with wonder. "They ran out ages ago."

"I just... I just _wished _for them."

It took not even two seconds, and eyes were closed and lips were moving, silently wishing for things. After all, stranger things have happened in the FAYZ. Lana's eyes snapped open, they were as wide as dinner plates, and she was holding a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste.

"No way," she breathed. Beside Astrid, Caine glanced over.

"I guess you can't wish for people," he said, his voice almost sad, and Astrid knew he was thinking of Diana. Orc was downing a can of beer, the first in a six-pack, Edilio was chewing on a crunchy taco filled with lettuce and meat, after informing everyone that the wish to escape didn't work -_like that wasn't the first thing they had tried- _and Drake looked up, smirking.

In his hands was a sleek, black submachine gun.

"I guess wishes do come true."

"Yes, yes they do." The six teenagers all flinched at the sickly sweet voice that came from the front of the church, and looked over their shoulders apprehensively. Lana let out a soft groan.

It was Nala, of course, and as she stalked down the main aisle, every kid froze. They didn't just stop what they were doing in fear, they all paused, not moving again because they _couldn't_. All save for Astrid, Little Pete, Caine, Lana, Edilio, Drake, Orc and Patrick. A smirk stretched Nala's young features.

"My, my, my," she spat, settling herself on the cleanest pew available, which wasn't very clean. "What a nice little _survival group _we have going on here. Enemies, working together. What a cliché Hallmark moment." Her gaze lingered on Little Pete, but nobody noticed that his normally vacant eyes glinted with a deep-seeded anger.

"Either kill one of us, or get out," Edilio said, finally finding his voice. "We already know how cute our group is, now leave us alone. You have no right to be in a church, _crías del diablo_."

Nala's eyes darkened. "But I gave you each a wish," she replied throatily, "doesn't that mean I get one?" Astrid and Drake immediately moved in front of Little Pete, Drake clutching his gun. Nala winked. "Not him. Not yet."

And every other kid in the church dropped over, fell to the ground with a sickening _thud_.

Dead.

Tears sprung to Lana's eyes as Astrid crossed herself, and Edilio muttered in Spanish. Nala sent another jaunty wink, straight at Drake.

"Aren't wishes fun?"

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**Wheew. Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	17. Spotlight

**Mmhmm. I'm back again.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own ANYTHING.**

**DEDICATION: To Caris, as usual. *wide smile***

**WARNING: Drake gets a bit of a sailor's mouth in this one... Haha.**

**NOTE: Edilio and his Spanish-ness again. He says "What is this?"**

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**Chapter Seventeen: Spotlight**

_"The one thing you're fighting to hold_

_will be the one thing you've got to let go..._

_And when you feel the war can not be won,_

_you're gonna die to try what can't be done..."_

_-Mute Math, "Spotlight"_

_Day one hundred and five, still._

_Nala just left, leaving her cronies to clean up after her, to clean up the Holocaust that she just caused, and left _us _with the promise that she was coming back soon. I don't know what that means, exactly; is she finally going to kill all of us and take Little Pete? Or does she just want to torture us some more?_

The doors slammed open and Nala stalked in, flanked by dozens of her clones. "Get up," she snapped, and after a brief hesitation they all obeyed, Lana tugging on Patrick's ragged, filthy collar. They subconsciously shifted into one big group; Drake and his gun at the head, only inches away from Nala.

"Hey, Drake," she said, all smiles and fake cheeriness. "How are you liking this game?" His eyes flared with rage as he shifted his weight and clutched his gun even tighter.

"Fuck you."

"Now, now, now." She actually wagged her finger at him. "None of that language. Hmm, what punishment should be used for disorderly conduct?" Nala snapped a finger and Drake's gun was suddenly in her hands, and her little-girl arms were wrapped around his throat, the barrel of the gun pressed against his temple.

"Death is a fitting punishment, don'tcha think?" Her voice was light, casual even, as if she was discussing which ice cream flavor to choose for dessert. "I guess the group of survivors will be one short tonight." Nala's finger hovered over the trigger, and Astrid looked into Drake's eyes.

_I shouldn't have felt anything. This was it; the killer finally getting what he deserves. And I know it's cliché; I looked into his eyes and saw something there, but I did. I still don't know what that something was, but I did understand that our "group of survivors" as Nala called us has no chance of survival of any sort without Drake. However much I hate it._

"Stop," Astrid said loudly, silently proud that her voice had come out sounding strong, without wavering. "Just... Stop. This has to end." She picked up Little Pete, resolutely not looking down at his blond head, resolutely staring ahead, not thinking about what she was doing, willing herself not to cry.

Like she even _had _any tears left.

Astrid missed the shocked, incredulous looks on the faces of four teenagers behind her, she missed the whispered "No..." from Lana, she missed as Drake's mouth twisted downward into a scowl, but his grey eyes lightened from the inside. No, right at that moment Astrid's world consisted of herself, her brother, and Nala, smirking in front of her.

"So, you finally are seeing sense?" Nala whispered as she removed the gun from Drake's head, threw it to one of her lackeys, and took Little Pete in her arms. "Good job. The cretin lives, for now." She shoved Drake back to their group, where he sprawled to the floor. Lana helped him up; his face was a brilliant shade of red.

"What, are you an _idiot_?" he hissed as Nala walked away, one of her clones carrying Little Pete. "I thought we agreed that that kid was our only hope, and you just _gave him away_!" He exhaled loudly, turning away in exasperation.

"She was about to kill you!" Astrid replied bitingly. "Or don't you care about that anymore? Heavens above, I should at least get some thanks! I just gave my _brother _away for you, the psycho that killed my boyfriend!"

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Silence reigned in the church when the Nalas showed up. Astrid was sitting with Lana, as far away from Drake as she could get. Edilio was playing a subdued game of Spit with Caine, as Orc's fingers were too big to hold the cards. Orc was watching, drinking a beer. And Drake had his arms crossed, leaning against the far wall.

"You are summoned," a Nala droned. "Come, or be taken forcefully." Astrid and Lana stood up, as did the others. Lana whistled for Patrick, who came, oblivious to all tension around him.

"I've had enough forceful taking today, thanks," Caine muttered as they were led outside for the first time in exactly one hundred and five days.

"What the _hell_," Drake hissed.

"¿_Qué es eso_?" Edilio's mouth dropped open.

"So _this_ is what she's been doing," Caine and Lana whispered at the same time. Astrid's eyes widened in awe and Patrick barked loudly.

"Hot damn," Orc slurred.

Where the mayor's office used to be loomed a gigantic castle, turrets and everything. Nalas marched around it, putting finishing touches on the walls. But that wasn't all.

Behind the castle was another hulking piece of architecture, a gigantic Roman-inspired colosseum. "What _is _that?" Drake asked under his breath, shading his eyes with one hand to get a better look at it.

"A colosseum," Astrid answered, before she remembered that she wasn't talking to Drake. "The ancient Romans built them. They were entertainment centers, where they would throw prisoners in to fight with wild animals or each other as an execution." Then, she realized what she had said, and turned to the others with wide eyes.

_Entertainment centers. Where prisoners would be executed for the pleasure of others._

_God save us all._

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**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	18. Undo It

**Hey guys... This'll be my last chapter in a while, so I tried to make it long. Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gone!**

**DEDICATION: To Caris. I can't say it enough :)**

**NOTE: And we see the starts of the pairing. Woot!**

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**Chapter Eighteen: Undo It**

_"Now you only have yourself to blame_

_For playing all those stupid games..._

_You're always going to be the same,_

_Oh, no, you'll never change..."_

_-Carrie Underwood, "Undo It"_

_Day one hundred and five, still. Yes, I know. This feels like the longest day of my life._

_So, it turns out that we're not about to be killed in Nala's colosseum yet. We're currently in the castle, in the lap of luxury, to be exact. I just took a shower. With hot water. This may be the devil's lair, but I'm going to enjoy the hell out of it._

_Oh, look. Another joke._

_On the other hand, part of me feels horrible about (kind of) enjoying myself when I don't know how or where Petey is. But I think I came up with a theory: if he lives, we live. And I'm still living, so Petey must be alive. Uncounted for, but alive. And that's something._

_I'm regretting ever giving Petey to Nala. I thought it would be the right thing to do, but it turns out that Drake wasn't so grateful. Well, screw him. I saved his life, and he knows it._

Astrid lay back on her four-poster bed (_It actually has curtains in between the posters, like I'm a princess or something_) and tried not to sigh in ecstasy as her head hit the down pillows. As soon as she began to drift off, a knock came from the door.

"Please, Nala, could you kill me after I take a quick nap?" she asked, only half-joking, surprised when a low chuckle came from outside.

Drake.

"Sorry, I don't want any," she grumbled, rolling over on her bed. "Go away."

"Are you decent?"

Astrid snorted at the irony of it all. She had just spent more then three months with this boy in a church where nothing was _decent_, and now he was outside her princess bedroom, asking that ludicrous question.

Ah, such is the way of the FAYZ.

"If I say no, will you leave?"

And of course, the door creaked open and Drake stepped in. Astrid, at first, was startled by how _different _he looked, but then realized with a spurt of repressed laughter that it was because he was _clean_.

_Wow, his tentacle's red? I thought it was a muddy shade of brown..._

He must have been thinking the same thing, because he said; "Holy crap, I almost forgot you were a blonde." Astrid rolled her eyes, all humor gone.

"Tell me why you're here, Merwin, or get out." To her eternal chagrin, he _chuckled _at her demanding tone. "I'm not kidding."

"Whatever, _Ellison_," he replied, still sniggering. "And I'm _here _because everyone else is in various stages of unconsciousness. I had no idea that Caine could snore that loud..." The corner of Astrid's mouth twitched upwards.

"What, was I the last person on your list?"

"Yes, actually."

"Why? Still bitter that I _saved your life_?" His mouth curved downward as he subtly clenched his fists.

"You did something idiotic," he said, his voice almost a growl. "You should have just kept your brother; my life isn't worth anything to you. Or are you like Sammy, you need to be a big hero?" It was Astrid's turn to clench her fists.

"Don't you dare say his name," she hissed, standing up, one hand on a bedpost. Drake's face contorted into an unholy grin.

"Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam _Temple_, School Bus Sammy, Sam, Sam..." He took a deep breath. "Should I go on?" There were tears sparkling in the corners of Astrid's eyes as she sat heavily back on the bed.

"Just go away." She swiped at her eyes furiously, filled with rage that Drake Merwin was about to watch her cry. "Leave me alone! You should have never came in here." She heard the door creak open and was grateful that he had actually listened, until she heard Caine's voice.

"What's going on in here? Drake? What the heck; party in Astrid's bedroom?" Drake snorted with laughter.

"If it's a party, it feels more like a funeral."

Caine came into Astrid's line of blurred vision, running a hand over his short dark hair. "Um, Astrid? You're crying... Why?" She swiped at her eyes again, in vain. The tears that she had held in for one hundred and five days just kept pouring out.

"Sam," she managed to get out through heaving sobs that just kept getting louder. She felt horrible, and it wasn't getting any better by Caine standing awkwardly next to her. The awkward moment only increased as Orc lumbered into the room, closely followed by Edilio. They glanced at Astrid, who's head was in her hands, and her shoulders were shaking with grief, and then stood there, not knowing what to do.

Lana came in last, dragged by Patrick, and she quickly assessed the situation in front of her. Girl, crying. Boys, clueless. She exhaled loudly and crossed the room to Astrid, pulling her into an embrace. "Ssh, ssh," she whispered. "It'll be okay, ssh." As Astrid's sobs quieted, Lana looked over her shoulder at the four boys.

"What the hell happened to her?" As soon as the Healer hissed those words, Orc, Edilio and Caine held up their hands in the universal gesture for _it wasn't me_. Lana narrowed her eyes at Drake. "What did you do?"

For the first time ever, Drake looked uncomfortable as Lana shot him a furious gaze. "I, um, might have mentioned Sam?" Astrid shuddered in Lana's grip, and Edilio made a disbelieving noise in the back of his throat.

"Jeez, _hombre_, that's what we call tact." Drake glared at the ground as Lana glared at him.

"Now say you're sorry."

Drake's head snapped up. "What? Ew, no! Why the heck would I... No!" Lana smiled gleefully.

"We're in this together. I don't care if you're a psycho, I don't care if you want to kill every single one of us in this room. We're in an _alliance_, in case you forgot, and that usually means working together. So shut up, swallow your huge ego, and say it."

After this speech, Lana herded the rest of the group out of Astrid's room, and shut the door. Drake knew they were still there, listening. He grimaced.

On the bed, Astrid had gotten herself together. Her eyes were still red and puffy, but she was no longer crying. Their eyes met, and you could almost feel the awkwardness permeating the air.

"Um," Drake began, his whip twitching involuntarily.

Astrid sighed quietly. "You don't have to say it. I'm fine." This was a blatant lie, and even Drake realized that.

"Um," he said again. This was _not _a great day for his vocabulary. "Um, Astrid, I- Um..." Her eyes narrowed.

"You killed him, and you can't even _apologize_?" she burst out, looking surprised at herself, but she couldn't stop once she started. "Jeez, it's not that hard! I'm sorry Astrid, for killing your boyfriend. I'm sorry for completely obliterating the love of your life. I'm _sorry _for _murdering _the only one who had a chance to save us!" She was screaming by the end, her cheeks as red as her eyes. Drake flushed.

"That was enough for the both of us, I guess," he said, his voice as cold as ice. He stalked to the door and yanked it open. Lana almost fell on her face.

"What kind of apology was _that_?" the Healer yelped as Drake pushed past her.

"The only _apology _she deserved," he spat.

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**Tut, tut. Drake. Such a bad attitude. And Astrid, such malice. Jeez.**

**Review!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


	19. Mr James Dean

**Okay, so I know I said this story was going to be on hold for awhile. But I had an inspiration last night, and stayed up way to late writing this. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do :)**

**DISCLAIMER: Eh, you know the drill.**

**DEDICATION: To Caris. As usual! **

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**Chapter Nineteen: Mr. James Dean**

_"Here we are, _

_face-to-face,_

_same energy,_

_you and me,_

_don't wanna be,_

_enemies..."_

_-Hilary Duff, "Mr. James Dean"_

Lana and Astrid had decided to have a girl's night after Drake had, well, been himself. So they set up in Astrid's room; soda and popcorn that a Nala had brought, nail polish, and even a few chick flicks on DVD that they had found. All in all, it would have been the greatest in-FAYZ girl fest ever, except for one thing.

Caine, Edilio, and Orc were there, as well.

"Tell me again why you three insist upon staying here?" Lana questioned, sounding exasperated. She and Astrid were lounging on Astrid's bed, Patrick by their feet. Orc was sprawled on the floor, and Caine and Edilio were fighting over the remaining chair. "This is _Astrid's _room, you know, and you're making out girl's night in completely awkward."

"You think we're gonna split up when we're in Nala's lair?" Caine asked incredulously as he levitated Edilio off of the chair and dropped him on the bed next to Patrick, claiming the recliner for himself. "That would be idiotic. So, deal with it." Astrid and Lana simultaneously rolled their eyes and popped the movie (_"27 Dresses"_) into the DVD player.

About ten minutes into the movie, Orc groaned loudly from the floor. Lana shushed him, but he continued. And then Edilio started groaning, and even Caine rolled his eyes and joined in. Lana took the movie out, and the noise immediately stopped. "You guys are so immature," she complained. "All I was trying to do was make Astrid feel better, and you three had to go and ruin it."

"Slow down, _chica_." Edilio held out his hands. "We're not the root of the problem. Drake did it, really, not any of us." Caine raised an eyebrow and held up the battered deck of cards from the church.

"Poker, anyone?"

_**o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.**_

Drake squinted as the breeze filled with salt spray from the ocean hit his face. He had found a passage in the castle that led to the highest turret, the unfinished one, hanging over the ocean. He was sitting on a dangerous precipice, his feet dangling, the waves breaking on the castle's face far below him. If he fell from this height, death was inevitable. But Drake was far past caring.

He should have been dead already, a bullet in his head, and Little Pete should have never gone to Nala. Drake sneered; this was all Astrid's fault. Her and her uppity attitude, thinking that she had saved his life when she had just been stupid. Drake smirked at that. Astrid the Genius, the stupid one.

And then, there was the issue of Sam.

Even dead, he was still a problem. Drake rubbed his forehead with his only hand. Sam. How he hated Sam. The death of that laser-handed freak had given him immense pleasure, but now it was coming right back to bite him in the whip-arm.

Because Lana was right; however he hated to admit it. If they had any hope of surviving this castle of death, it was together. And there would be no unity if two members of the group wanted to dig out the eyes of each other; namely, Astrid and Drake.

But there was no way this side of eternity that Drake would approach Brain Girl first. Hell would freeze over while pigs flapped their little wings and a whole _choir _of fat ladies sang in the background before he would be the first to talk.

And then Astrid sat down next to him.

"Whoa," Drake said loudly, scooting backwards a few inches. "Oh, it's only you." Astrid halfheartedly rolled her eyes, and Drake noticed her glum expression and dull eyes.

"Yeah, it's only me," she deadpanned, running her fingers through her short, blond hair. "Sorry for disappointing you." Drake's eyebrows furrowed.

"How'd you find me?"

"It was a mistake, believe me. I wanted somewhere quiet to think, and I came up here." She stood up. "I'm guessing now that it was a bad idea."

"Yeah, it probably was." Astrid made a small, disgusted noise in the back of her throat and made to leave. "But you can stay, if you want. I won't bother you." Drake didn't turn around- _where had _those_ words came from?_- but he heard Astrid sit on the other end of the precipice, and as he glanced over, he saw that her feet were dangling, the same as his.

_Be careful_, his brain said, and his lips almost formed the words before he realized what they said. He immediately bit them back. He had never said the words _be careful_ to anyone, nor had he wanted to. Drake himself was never careful. So why should he give a damn whether or not Astrid...

"You'd better be careful," she said from her end. "I mean, if you don't want to slip to your death. I don't want to have saved your life for nothing." Drake silently pulled his legs back to a safer place, watching as she did the same.

"You're still hung up on that, aren't you?" he said finally. "The whole "saving my life" thing." Astrid crossed her arms as if she was cold.

"Yeah, I guess I am. And for a good reason, too," she added defensively.

"Really. Like what?" Drake couldn't help baiting her; watching Astrid explode had proven to be rather entertaining. But he was in for a surprise.

"I don't know." She sighed. "I really have no idea why I want something back from you." She sounded almost as if she was talking to herself. "You're the worst, most horrible person I have ever met, but I gave up my brother for you. Why? _Why?_" She whispered the last word, looking from the grey, stormy sea to him.

He swallowed. "Are you regretting it?"

Astrid clenched her eyes shut, face contorting in pain, and then her eyes slowly fluttered open. "I should, shouldn't I?" Drake tried to smirk, but it came out looking like a sad smile.

"Probably."

"And I'll never get an apology for what you did to Sam, will I?"

"Unless you want a lie. And frankly, I think I've had enough lies thrown at me to last a lifetime." Astrid's blue eyes stared into Drake's dark grey ones for what seemed like an eternity.

"And I'll never know who you _really _are, will I?" she finally whispered, her voice sounding pained. Drake looked away, back at the roiling waves.

"Unless you want to. And nobody has ever wanted that."

* * *

**Review, please!**

**:Hyperactive Lioness:**


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